Motorcycle

ABSTRACT

A motorcycle including twin seats consisting of a driver front seat and a rider rear seat and luggage containers each provided to both sides of a rear wheel. Outer surfaces of the luggage containers are continuously connected to side covers each for covering each side of a vehicle body at a forward location of the luggage containers, and concave portions are each formed at each side of the vehicle body by the luggage containers and the side covers. The concave portions are each provided with a rider footrest member. The luggage containers each comprise a container main body having an opening having an upwardly and inwardly extending peripheral edge with a bottom peripheral wall below the opening and a lid member intimately contacted with said opening to form the luggage container as a whole. The lid member is swingably pivotally attached to the main body through pivotally attaching means disposed to a lower periphery of the opening of the main body.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The field of the present invention is motorcycle layout and designincluding seat and luggage container design.

In motorcycles employing luggage containers to either side of the rearwheel, a substantial portion of the upper half of the rear wheel isoften covered by the luggage containers and the containers block water,mud, etc. from being splashed outwardly from the rear wheel. However,such structures typically have gaps or spaces between each of theluggage containers and the vehicle body side covers forwardly of theluggage containers. Due to the foregoing, water and mud splashed by therear wheel may splash out through the space between the luggagecontainer and the side cover to make the front surfaces of the luggagecontainers or side covers dirty.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One object of the present invention is to prevent, in motorcycles havingluggage containers disposed on both sides of a rear wheel, splashing ofthe front surfaces of the luggage containers, the vehicle body covers orriders with water, mud, etc. from the rear wheel.

This object may be achieved by continuously connecting the luggagecontainers disposed to both sides of the rear wheel on such a motorcyclewith right and left side covers for covering both sides of the vehiclebody. Rider footrests may be located in the concave portion formed bythe luggage container and the side cover at each side of the vehiclebody.

Further, according to the present invention, there may be providedmotorcycles having luggage containers of large effective capacity.

The above and other objects and features of the present invention willbecome more manifest from the following description with reference tothe accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side view of a motorcycle according to the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof;

FIG. 3 is a partial horizontal sectional view of the above-mentionedmotorcycle;

FIG. 4 is a rear end view of the motorcycle of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a luggage container; and

FIG. 6 is a side view, partly in section, of a luggage containeraccording to another embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

One embodiment of the present invention will be described hereunder withreference to the accompanying drawings.

A vehicle frame 12 of a motorcycle 10 is installed with an engine Esituated between a front wheel FW and a rear wheel RW. At an upperlocation of the engine E, a fuel tank T is disposed. At a rearwardlocation of the fuel tank T, a tandem seat or twin seats consisting of adriver's front seat S₁ and a rider's rear seat S₂.

The body of the motorcycle 10 has a front fairing 14 and right and leftside covers 16. Upper half side portions of the rear wheel RW arecovered by luggage containers 22. The luggage containers 22, as shown inFIG. 3, are each secured to plate pieces 12a projecting from the vehicleframe 12 by rivets 28. RF denotes a rear fender. The luggage containers22 are each provided with a branched wall 26 extending forward from thefront wall 24. A front end periphery of the branched wall 26 is warpedinwardly to form a shoulder portion 26a. Each side cover 16 is firmlysecured to the fuel tank T and the respective luggage container 22 byremovably fitting a projection 18 at its front end portion into a holeformed in a lower end peripheral portion of the fuel tank T and aprojection 20 at its rear end portion into a hole formed in the shoulderportion 26a of the branched wall 26. An outer surface of the side cover16 and an outer surface of the branched wall 26 are smoothly continuedto form a common plane. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a concave portion Ais formed at each side of the vehicle body by the front wall 24 of theluggage containers 22, the branched wall 26 thereof and the side covers16.

Disposed to positions sideward of the engine E are driver right and leftfootrests 30 projecting from the vehicle body 12. Disposed to positionsupward and rearward of the driver footrests 30 are rider right and leftfootrests 32 likewise projecting from the vehicle body 12. Each of therider footrests 32 is positioned at each of the concave portions A. Theareas for the rider to rest his feet are made larger than the driverfootrests 30.

In this embodiment, as mentioned in the foregoing, each luggagecontainer 22 and side cover 16 are mutually continuously connectedthrough the branched wall 26 projecting from the front wall 24 of theluggage container 22. As a result, the upper half portion of the rearwheel RW is completely covered up. Accordingly, even if water, mud, etc.are splashed by the rear wheel RW when driving in the rain, the splasheswill never reach concave portion A. Accordingly, the outer surface ofeach luggage container 22 and side cover 16 can be effectively preventedfrom getting dirty. In addition, the lower legs and feet of the riderresting on the rider footrests 32 also will be protected from rear wheelsplashing.

Further, since the upper half portion of the rear wheel RW and variousparts disposed in the vicinity thereof cannot be seen from outside ofthe vehicle body, the outer appearance of the vehicle body is improvedin association with the beauty obtained by forming the side cover andthe luggage container continuously.

Although the side cover 16 and the luggage container 22 are separatelyformed in this embodiment, the side cover may be formed by furthergreatly extending the branched wall 26, thereby enabling to reduce thenumber of component parts and to eliminate labors required forassembling the parts.

Next, the detailed structure of the luggage containers 22 will bedescribed with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. Each luggage container 22comprises a container main body 34 firmly secured to the vehicle bodyframe 12 and a lid member 38 for covering an opening 36 of the containermain body 34. The opening 36 faces upwardly and outwardly of the vehicleas can best be seen in FIGS. 4 and 5. The lid member 38, when closed inplace in the opening 36, cooperates with the main body 34 to completethe luggage container 22. A bottom peripheral wall 40 of the containermain body 34 is integrally formed with two upper and lower series ofprojections 42 and 44 projecting outward and a concave groove 46disposed therebetween. The concave groove 46 is fitted with a protector48 made of an elastic member such as rubber, etc.

An upper periphery 36a of the opening 36 of the container main body 34is formed with a retaining concave portion 50. The retaining concaveportion 50 is fitted with a seal rubber 52. Firmly secured to a lowerperiphery 36b of the opening 36 of the container main body 34 is oneside piece 54a of a hinge 54 having a swinging axis in the fore and aftdirection of the vehicle. The other side piece 54b of this hinge 54 isfirmly fixed with a lower periphery 38b of the lid member 38.Accordingly, the lid member 38 is pivotally attached to the containermain body 34 by the hinge 54. An upper periphery 38a of the lid member38 is provided with an engaging projection 56 detachably engageable withthe retaining concave portion 50.

Since the luggage container 22 is constructed as mentioned above, whenan upper portion of the lid member 38 is pulled outwardly from a closedstate when the engaging projection 56 of the lid member 38 retained inthe retaining concave portion 50 of the container main body 34, theengaging projection 56 of the lid member 38 is disengaged from theretaining concave portion 50 of the main body 34, and the lid member 38will swing outward about the hinge 54 to open the container 22. Sincethe lid member 38 is generally horizontally swung about the lowerperiphery 36b of the opening 36 of the container main body 34, the upperperiphery 38a of the lid member 38 does not swing upwardly to any greatdegree. Accordingly, even if a trunk 58 is located above the luggagecontainer 22, the lid member 38 can be opened and closed without beingcaught by the trunk 58.

Further, since the container main body 34 has the bottom peripheral wall40 along its entire periphery, even when the lid member 38 is open andvertically elongated luggage 60 is contained in the luggage container 22as shown in FIG. 5, the luggage 60 will not fall outwardly or drop.Thus, the effective capacity of the luggage container 22 is increased.

Since the bottom peripheral wall 40 of the luggage container 22 isformed with the two upper and lower series of projections 42 and 44 andthe concave groove 46 disposed therebetween, the bottom peripheral wallmay be strong and rigid. Moreover, since the concave groove 46 is fittedwith a protector having sufficient elastic properties, the bottomperipheral wall 40 is protected from shocks, etc. from outside.

FIG. 6 illustrates a modified embodiment of the abovementioned luggagecontainer. The figure is a side view of the luggage container. In thefigure, it is understood that the right side is forward and the leftside is backward. In this modified embodiment, an opening 36' of aluggage container main body 34' is opened up rearwardly on the vehicle.A lid member 38' is swung fore and aft to open and close the opening36'.

Thus, an improved motorcycle structure and arrangement is disclosed.While embodiments and applications of this invention have been shown anddescribed, it would be apparent to those skilled in the art that manymore modifications are possible without departing from the inventiveconcepts herein. The invention, therefore, is not to be restrictedexcept on the spirit of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. In a motorcycle having a frame extendinglongitudinally between a front wheel and a rear wheel, an engine carriedby said frame intermediate said front wheel and said rear wheel, a fueltank above said engine and a seat disposed rearwardly of said fuel tank,the improvement comprising:laterally spaced luggage containers attachedto said frame on opposite sides of said rear wheel; and a side coverextending forwardly from each of said luggage containers, each said sidecover having a forward end engaging said fuel tank and a rear endengaging said luggage container.
 2. The improvement as claimed in claim1, wherein said luggage containers and said side covers are integrallyformed.
 3. The improvement according to claim 1 in which each said sidecover cooperates with the forward portion of each said luggage containerto define a concave portion at the nexus between said side cover andsaid luggage container; and a rider footrest disposed in each saidconcave portion.
 4. A motorcycle having a rear wheel, comprisingtwinseats including a driver front seat and a rider rear seat; luggagecontainers provided to either side of the rear wheel; side coversforwardly of said luggage containers, the outer surfaces of said luggagecontainers being continuously connected to said side covers, the forwardportions of said luggage containers defining concave portions eachformed at the side of the motorcycle adjacent said side covers; driverfootrests disposed forward of each said concave portion; and riderfootrests disposed in each said concave portion, said rider footrestsbeing disposed to positions upward and rearward of said driver footrestsand made larger than said driver footrests.
 5. A motorcycle having arear wheel, luggage containers disposed on each side of said rear wheeland a trunk located above said luggage containers, said luggagecontainers each comprising:a container main body having an openinginclined upwardly and forwardly from the rear end thereof and a lidmember fitted to said opening, said lid member being pivotally attachedto said main body about an axis at the lower periphery of the opening ofsaid main body.
 6. The motorcycle of claim 5, wherein said main bodyincludes upper and lower projections with a concave groove disposedtherebetween extending about the lower outer periphery of said mainbody.